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Darwin's theory of evolution creates controversy

When Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was
published in 1859, it was by no means the first scientific attempt
to explain species change in evolutionary terms. It was, however,
the first to propose a workable mechanism for this change, which he
termed 'natural selection' in an analogy with domestic breeding
techniques. The arbitrary and circumstance-dependent nature of the
world his theory envisaged were discomforting for early readers,
along with the fact that 'evolution' did not necessarily imply
'improvement'. Moreover, although Darwin deliberately refrained
from discussing the implications of this theory of evolution for
homo sapiens, and only mentioned 'man' once in the entire book, the
most controversial implication w…

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5029Darwin's theory of evolution creates controversy2Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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